This novel is written as a prose epic. In other words, it is in the style of an epic poem without the traditional poetic line breaks; instead, it uses prose paragraph style. However, like an epic, it is not broken into chapters the way a traditional novel is. Think of Dante's Inferno or Homer's Odyssey, both of which are epics and which are broken into cantos and books, respectively. In this case, the breaks come in episodes. And yes, like a traditional novel, the episodes indicate breaks in the story, a shift of action or focus.